Beware my Wrath
Act 2:
Ongoing Search
It's the middle of the night. Onyx run across a rooftop, stopping at it's edge, he overlooks the alleyway below. Onyx puts on his mask and puts on the hood of his overcoat. The mask takes the appearance loosely base off that of a human skull. The open spaces for the eyes are covered by black tinted lenses. He is dressed in a black jumpsuit. Over his jumpsuit are armor plates that completely cover his body. Most of the plates are a matte black, but the plates on his forearms, hands, calfs, and feet are gunmetal grey. The underside of each gauntlet includes three small, double-edged kukri-like blades. Going over most of the armor, is an opened, hooded, black leather trench coat that goes down to his ankles. The coat is tucked into his gauntlets. Going over the coat is a black leather belt with a rounded gunmetal grey buckle and many pouches. On the back of the belt are two holsters for Onyx's new weapons, dual revolver, semi-automatic pistol, and sawed-off shotgun hybrids. Each has two barrels and are black with silver grips and hammers. The weapons fires like a semi-automatic pistol with the power and cosmetics of a revolver, and reloads like a sawed-off shotgun. Onyx then perches on the rooftop and waits.
The back wall of a shop is blown open. A thug carrying a bag runs out into the alleyway behind the shop. He takes out and looks looks at his pocket watch.
"Right on time." The thug says to himself.
The pocket watch is shot out of his hand.
"Sure about that?" Onyx's voice, which is made deeper by his mask, echoes throughout the alley.
The thug drops the bag, takes out a pistol, and remains on guard.
"Who's there!?" The thug shouts, "Show yourself!"
The thug hears a footstep and fires in it's direction. Each shot misses, but gives him a small glimpse of Onyx.
"Two shots left." Onyx states, "Make em' count."
The thug shoots in the direction of the voice, missing both times still only getting a glimpse of Onyx. One of the shots hits a pipe, filling the alleyway with smoke.
"You missed." Onyx states from behind the thug.
The thug turns around, backs away, and tries to shoot. Onyx was right, he had no more ammo.
"Forget reloading." The Rider warns.
The thug throws the gun to his side. He puts his hand in the air.
"Okay." He surrenders, "You got me."
The thug looks down and back as he lifts his right leg to reveal an hidden knife sheathed on his boot, hoping the gas would conceal his actions.
"No knife." Onyx warns, "Best bet is the backup piece."
"How did you...?" The thug begins.
He then grabs the backup gun from his back pocket and aims it at where Onyx was. But Onyx was gone. As the smoke clears, the thug can see that Onyx is no longer in the alleyway. Onyx then drops on top of the thug and throws him into the side of the alleyway.
"You said the backup gun was my best bet." The thug states.
"I lied." The Rider responds.
Onyx is interrupted by a large safe. It crashes into him from the side, dislocating Onyx's right shoulder.
Damn it, I let my guard down, Onyx thinks to himself.
A second thug stands, wielding two grey gauntlets.
"What's that they say? Oh yeah! Beware the Rider. Funny, I don't see nothing to beware off." The second thug taunts.
The Rider smashes his shoulder into a wall to pop it back into place. The second thug charges at the Rider and unleashes a flurry of blows. The Rider effortlessly dodges them all, waiting for an opening. The Rider spots one when the first thug tries to help, he shoots at the Rider but ends up hitting the second thugs gauntlets. The second thug angrily turns to his ally, who puts his hands up to apologize. The Rider then launches fires two shots at the first thug. One of the shots disarms the thug and the second one knocks him out. The Rider then punches the second thug in the face, knocking him out too. The Rider groans as he holds his injured shoulder.
"That better be it for this evening's surprises." The Rider says to himself.
Onyx gets out of his bed, wearing only the pants of his jumpsuit and his boots. A large bruise has formed on his shoulder due to the attack from last night. He wasn't sleeping, the Rider can't sleep. He had relocated to Red's penthouse. It is a large two floored high-end one. Obviously gotten through ill-gotten gains. Red stands at the door expectantly.
"What did you find?" Onyx asks.
"Not much, no more than the other thugs you've brought in." Red responds.
Red grabs Onyx's injured arm as Onyx tries to walk past him, causing Onyx to groan.
"Your lack of rest is affecting you in the field." Red warns.
"I'm fine!" Onyx insists.
"Really?!" Red asks, "Your aura should have protected you from that attack, so why didn't it?"
Onyx stares at Red.
"You haven't slept in days. Your aura is low and your weak." Red explains, "Normally, you'd be in the Shadow Zone so it would replenish your energy and aura at an accelerated pace, but ever since you've killed Night you've been avoiding it."
"I didn't ask for your medical report!" Onyx growls.
Onyx pulls himself away from Red and enters the living room. Red follows behind Onyx. Once inside walks to the fireplace. Onyx slides his finger on a portion of the wall beside the fireplace, pressing a hidden button. The fireplace slides to reveal a hidden door. The door opens, revealing a command center with a locker containing Onyx's Rider armor, mask, and coat. On the door was a bunch of gadgets and ammo, including two of the pistols the Rider had used. Onyx puts on his gear and walks to Red.
"It's ready, by the way." Red says.
Red takes out a small white box and hands it to the Rider. The Rider opens it and pulls out a scroll. The Rider docks the scroll in a slot on his left gauntlet.
"You know, even though we aren't criminals, we can still get locked up for this." Red warns.
"We are criminals, Red, you're still one too." The Rider states., "The only difference is you have a boss."
"And you answer to no one." Red declares, "This is why we were on bad terms when you left."
"Make sure the others are ready." The Rider orders.
Red nods and leaves the room.
Team RWBY is in the library in Beacon Academy. They are sitting at a table playing games when Team VIRG walk up to them.
"Guess what!" Rusty shouts.
"What!" Ruby asks excitedly.
Rusty places his scroll on the middle of the table, projecting an image of the scene of the crime. The blown open wall was boarded up and police were at the scene.
"The Rider strikes again." Viridian comments.
The image cuts into a news report. Lisa Lavender's face appears next to images of the crime scene.
"The Rider has struck again, this time stopping a dust robbery. Once again there is no evidence to figure out what exactly happened. The only witness was the shopkeeper, who reported that the armored man attacked the criminals before fleeing from the scene with them. The stolen dust however, was left at the scene of the crime. The noticeable absence of his partner, the Reaper, brings up further questions about the Rider's sudden interest in petty theft." Lisa reports.
Ruby's face gets filled with disappointment.
"What's wrong?" Rusty asks.
"It's nothing." Ruby lies.
"It doesn't look like nothing." Indigo states.
"You always act like this whenever we bring up the Rider." Viridian states.
After a short moment of silence, Ruby speaks up.
"We know who the Rider is." Ruby admits.
"And..." Viridian says.
"He's Onyx, the guy we told you about." Ruby finishes.
"Hmm." Grey reacts.
Ruby had explained the events of the previous chapters to Team VIRG. They weren't sure how to react considering Onyx murdered a man in front of Team RWBY and murdered the same man at Beacon after nearly bombing the place. Little did they know, those actions have continued to haunt Onyx and influenced every decision he's made. But most importantly, his vow to never take another person's life ever again.